After a lot of years, I'm heading to new (and cheaper) pastures. I plan to get back to blogging regularly, and when I do, it will be here, at bobhyatt.me. See you all on the other side! Continue reading

This November I'll be participating with a really diverse group of church planters in a Church Planters Academy. If you are at all thinking about planting a church, this could be a great event for you to participate in. $100 off- This Week Only! Don't miss your chance to save $100 on registration for the Church Planters Academy, the premier event for anyone aspiring to start a church or faith community. Come and learn from proven leaders like Doug Pagitt Nanette Sawyer Tim Conder Nadia Bolz-Weber Bob Hyatt Alise Barrymore Russell Rathbun Debbie Blue Joe Boyd Don and Pam Heatley Bruce Reyes-Chow Maggie Mraz Russell Rathbun Jay Bakker and Tim Keel. November 10-12 in Minneapolis $149 (for a limited time!) More information at ChurchPlantersAcademy.com Continue reading

I was quoted recently in a Christianity Today article on Multisite Video Venue churches. A couple of clarifications- as Evergreen is technically a "multisite" church, I have no issue with that in itself. It's more the idea of the teaching ministry of the community being largely delegated to a video screen that really gets me. It's one thing when to show a video of an earlier service's message from someone still actuvely engaged there locally, it's another when it's a video from someone across town. But now the trend is towards large churches franchising themselves out of state- effectively giving over a key piece of local community leadership/teaching/eldering to videos (and yes, even holograms) of someone hundreds or even thousands of miles away. CT wanted my take on Mars Hill Seattle planting a video venue here in town, so I gave it to them. Of course, articles like this lack nuance and extended explanations, so let me clarify a couple of things. I'm fine with Mars Hill having a presence in PDX. Though we disagree (to say the least) on the role of women in church leadership (I'm pro, Mars Hill is con), I think we agree on the issues... Continue reading

But my biological imperatives aside... :) The truth is that ALL opinions on this are rooted in worldview and thus "religious." if, as science suggests, sexuality is somewhat flexible, then the question becomes what should guide us in our choices? That has always and will always be the realm of ethics and religion. Your opinion that "the problem doesn't exist" is rooted in a particular worldview/religious ideas. The men and women who are seeking treatment, for whatever reason, would beg to differ. To them, the problem is real- regardless of how they came to that opinion. Like those who believe they have been born in the wrong tendered body, they feel distress and want relief.
Its my opinion that a treatment that IS desired and has helped thousands should not be discounted because of the worldview of people who don't want it OR the psychology of those who have the opposite of a Bible-shaped box- no room for God in their worldview/psychological orientation.

Allow me to open a can of worms by touching briefly on what is quickly becoming the 3rd Rail of American culture, both within and without of the Church- homosexuality. <canofworms> When I was studying counseling a decade ago, one of the more challenging things I was taught and had to grapple wit...

Zach- evolutionary biologists and many sociologists now say that monogamy is "against" our nature. They say we have a biological need to reproduce with as many women as possible. My internal, physical desires confirm that- that is, my desires push against monogamy. Society too is now losing any stigma with having many partners, even while married.
But a few Bible verses and some family pressure (mostly from my wife and kids) push me in the opposite direction.
Which should I listen to?

Allow me to open a can of worms by touching briefly on what is quickly becoming the 3rd Rail of American culture, both within and without of the Church- homosexuality. <canofworms> When I was studying counseling a decade ago, one of the more challenging things I was taught and had to grapple wit...

I have a new post up on Out of Ur. Here's an excerpt and linkage. As a pastor, I have authority in my community. But authority is not really what I want. What I really want is influence. Authority is the ability to get people to do what I think they should do. Influence, however, is the ability to move people to want to do what they need to do. Here’s what I know from Scripture: Pastors/elders/overseers have authority in the local community. Hebrews 13:17 encourages us all to “Obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God.” First Thessalonians 5:12-13 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work.” Of course, this isn’t carte blanche for church leaders to have control over every aspect of peoples’ lives, though I bet you have met some leaders who’d like to think so. Jesus pointed us toward the correct use of authority... Read the rest here Continue reading

Can anyone explain to me how someone could be so intellectually self-unaware and obtuse as to be able to write, record and sing the following lyrics by Lily Allen: "Look inside Look inside your tiny mind Now look a bit harder Cause we're so uninspired, so sick and tired of all the hatred you harbor So you say It's not okay to be gay Well I think you're just evil You're just some racist who can't tie my laces Your point of view is medieval F*** you F*** you very, very much Cause we hate what you do And we hate your whole crew So please don't stay in touch." Uh, yeah... We're so tired of all the hatred, we're just going to add to it. Makes complete sense. It's not okay to have a problem with same-sex sexual activity. But it is okay to call someone evil because of their view that sex was designed to work a certain way in a certain context? Yeah... This reminds me of a passage in Tim Timmerman's fantastic book A Bigger World Yet- Faith, Brotherhood & Same-Sex Needs in which he talks about his friend Jim who had strugged for years with... Continue reading

Found this at Christians For Biblical Equality Choosing Priest Instead of Princess The expanded version of this column first appeared in the "Beauty" issue ofMutuality, Spring 2011, and can be purchased here. * * * * * * I hadn't heard of Captivating yet or John and Stasi Eldredge's Ransomed Heart Ministries, the undisputed flagship of what I call the "Christian princess movement." So when I asked a friend about where all these crowns were coming from, she directed me to that book. I borrowed a copy and read it in a crowded coffee shop in the middle of an Indiana winter. In it, I learned that, as a woman, I was designed by God to be a princess who longed to be romanced, reveal her beauty, and play a part in a grand adventure. I'll be honest with you—it was a pleasant daydream. I think that an overwhelmed, tired college student would take any diversion from her coursework, and if the diversion showed up on a white horse with a sword, so much the better. It was, apparently, God's will. I packed my bag, a little encouraged and a little deluded, and stood up. Then I caught a glimpse... Continue reading

I remember after our son Jack was born. After all the sleepless nights, crying and frustrations with learning how to be parents for the first time, it was about two years in when I started to feel "human" again- back to my old self, someone I not only recognized but liked. (Of course, right arou...

I remember after our son Jack was born. After all the sleepless nights, crying and frustrations with learning how to be parents for the first time, it was about two years in when I started to feel "human" again- back to my old self, someone I not only recognized but liked. (Of course, right around that time our second child Janie came along...) This has been kind of like that. For the last 2 1/2 months I've been on sabbatical. Often, in this pastoral world, after seven years it's customary to get a 2-3 month break, and the elders of Evergreen were gracious enough to offer (uh, insist on) that break to me. The first month I think I spent somewhat numbed out- to be honest, for most of 2010 I was completely burned out. I began to recover a bit in the early parts of 2011, but there were enough challenging things happening that "recover" never really got out of 1st or 2nd gear. So moving into sabbatical I was tired and feeling at a complete loss as to what to do with myself. I didn't have enough energy to do anything creative, so mostly I just...was. Which was... Continue reading

The title of this blog post and question that I ask is not one I am totally serious about - and not really suggesting we actually do call the accountant the worship pastor. But I do have the question of how we have overwhelmingly defined "worship" to primarily be music and singing. Read the rest of Dan's great post here via www.dankimball.com Continue reading

10. The first words someone says to you are "I'm sorry, but that's our pew." 9. When the offering is low, they pass the plate around again. And again. 8. They say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic... and it's March. (Or even July 4th weekend for that matter...) 7. The church website has five or more pictures of the senior pastor on the front page alone. (ahem) 6. "I see you have a Bible! Great! Let me get you a copy of the other book we use... It's kind of a sequel!" 5. The name of the church is longer than five words... much longer. 4. This guy is preaching. Or this guy. Or this gal. Or this guy. Or... this guy. 3. Three words: The Power Team. 2. Worship Song: You Spin Me Right Round Jesus, Right Round. 1. You are being preached to by a hologram. (seriously) Bonus: This guy is there. Continue reading

Allow me to open a can of worms by touching briefly on what is quickly becoming the 3rd Rail of American culture, both within and without of the Church- homosexuality. <canofworms> When I was studying counseling a decade ago, one of the more challenging things I was taught and had to grapple with was the idea that sexuality is not as set as we once believed, not concrete. That no one is either 100% homosexual or heterosexual and that we all are on the continuum somewhere between the two poles, and even sometimes experience movement along that continuum during our life. After initially struggling with this idea, I came to embrace it- especially as I thought back on the experiences of many folks I had known and their sexual pasts/journeys. (Note well what I'm saying and what I'm not saying- I'm not saying sexual behavior is relative. Behavior is a different issue, one where we make choices and exhibit control and should submit to God and His designs. The fact that our sexuality is forged in the confluence of gender and hormones and experience (both good and bad) and needs (both met and unmet) doesn't in any way free us... Continue reading

A couple of months ago, I participated in a little conference here in PDX, co-sponsored by the Ecclesia Network and North West Church Planters. It was called Rain and Shine, and the point was to draw together, for two days, a group of church planters who would talk about the brightest and darkest moments they had experienced in Church planting. Everyone got 14 minutes to speak. Here's an edited version of what I presented- my highest and lowest moments in being a church planter. Probably like a lot of you, I came to church planting through the route of dissatisfaction and hurt. The angry young man. I grew tired of asking the same questions, banging my head against the same walls- tired of feeling hurt by the system and tired of seeing people I loved leave because they had been “hurt.” So, when we planted our church here in Portland about 7 years ago- like you did or will do, we secretly, inwardly held the idea, even if we outwardly disavowed it, that we were going to be the church that got things right. It’s not so much we thought we were better or somehow the pinnacle of ecclesiastical evolution-... Continue reading

Saturday I was driving somewhere, doing something- I don't really remember what and it's not particularly important. But, alone with my thoughts and a bit more than 2/3 of the way thru my sabbatical, I realized- I'm not at peace. Rested, yes. Relaxed, yes. Happy- as much as anyone could reasonably expect. And yet, that internal churn, that turmoil of never quite feeling at ease. At ease with myself or others, with the state of my world, with the state of my life. Then I began wondering why this would be and what it should tell me- what did I need to do, change, become? Was it even possible this side of things to find "peace?" I wasn't long down this train of thought before I knew that the kind of peace I was desiring, the emotional rest and contentedness I needed, probably wasn't going to be found in rearranging the furniture- not even the furniture if my inward life and certainly not the furniture of my outward life. It came to me that the type of thing I wanted was first and foremost a gift, one given by God and received with thankfulness, not something found, earned or manufactured.... Continue reading

I don't find myself much in agreement with Southern Baptist Al Mohler, but... Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (most famous as a spiritual director of sorts to Michael Jackson) has responded on the Huffington Post to a tweet by Mohler. Mohler's offense? Offering Jesus to Anthony Weiner. Mohler tweeted "Dear Congressman Weiner: There is no effective 'treatment' for sin. Only atonement, found only in Jesus Christ." To which Rabbi Boteach responded: "I hear you, Rev. Mohler. But I seem to recall many sexual scandals involving evangelical ministers that would seem to undermine the premise that salvation through Jesus Christ grants immunity to sexual sin." Say what now? Does the Rabbi really mean to suggest that Mohler was offering an "immunity to sexual sin"?? He goes on to take Mohler to task for "proselytizing" via tweet and to lay out an interesting theory of redemption, namely- atonement and redemption are a product of what we do, and are impacted not in the least by our "faith." Respectfully... Proselytize? Please- a shout out on twitter hardly counts as that- amidst all the cat calls, condemnation and kerfuffle, and it's Mohler, trying to speak what he sees as the bottom line for the man's soul... Continue reading

When I first heard the Frost/Hirsch formulation of Christology-Missiology-Ecclesiology it was a lightbulb moment for me. Their critique was simple- most churches got the Christology piece right, but inverted the last two, built their Ecclesiology (their church structure) and then formed a sense of Missiology- how they would live out mission in the world. But since they did it in that order, what they did in mission was necessarily shaped by the church strutures they had already formed. Thus, there were pieces and places of mission that were left untouched because "we have never done it that way" or "we don't have the facilities for that." Frost and Hirsch flipped the script and challenged the church to be shaped by our mission- to let mission flow out of our understanding of Jesus and who He is (the sent and sending God), and so be the sent community that structures itself along the lines of cooperation with God, what He's doing and sending/calling us to do. Dave Fitch has long made no secret of his dislike of this formulation. I've never really understood it, since I think at heart he agrees with the idea that the church should be mission-shaped, not... Continue reading

I'm at the Richmond Hill Abbey for the annual Ecclesia Church Planters Bootcamp I've been privileged to help out with these last few years. It's always a good time for my soul- being able to teach and be taught, hanging out with some increasingly good friends like J.R. Briggs and Dave Fitch... One of the best parts of the week is joining the morning, noon and evening prayers that the resident community has in their rhythm of life. Very liturgical, sometimes very somber, very different from where most of us church planters are coming from. The thing about it is- I've noticed that everyone comes at the beginning of the week, but by the end... not so much. So this morning, I got a moment to challenge the planters here with something I try to keep in front of our community: the real reason we show up to corporate worship and prayer times. I think for many, it's exciting because it's different, at least at first. But after a day or two, it feels a bit more like a routine, a little dry... and people start thinking about other things they could do with that time. And that's where it's... Continue reading

I'm winding down, taking care of last-minute details, trying to make sure all is ready... so I can drop out of vocational ministry for 3 months. Last Sunday I preached my final sermon for the next little while. And, coming as it did after a long night of sweating out a fever of almost 103, it felt a bit more like limping over the finish line than anything else. But regardless, what was wonderful was being prayed for, blessed and "sent" in a sense, by the community. This week, after 7 years with few breaks (I don't think there's been a year where I actually used all of my vacation) I'm setting it down, stepping away and taking a deep breath. To tell you the truth, it couldn't come at a better time. Even though I have felt some sense of recovery these last few months, I still feel pretty crispy around the edges, pretty low on reserves... And already, I can feel certain brain cells waking up again- just taking the weight of ministry off (not the responsibility to care, but the responsibility to do something about it) is opening up bandwidth. I feel like I'm having the emotional... Continue reading

Seven Stanzas at Easter John Updike Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body. If the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall. It was not as the flowers, each soft spring recurrent; it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the eleven apostles; it was as his flesh: ours. The same hinged thumbs and toes, the same valved heart that – pierced – died, withered, paused, and then regathered out of enduring Might new strength to enclose. Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping transcendence; making of the event a parable, a thing painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages: let us walk through the door. The stone is rolled back, not papier mache, not stone in a story, but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of time will eclipse for each of us the wide light of day. And if we will have an angel at the tomb, make it a real angel, weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen spun on... Continue reading